Straight Through Hell
by Hallow.Bird
Summary: "But oh, my heart was flawed, I knew my weakness. So hold my hand and cosign me not to darkness" – We always joked that we could walk through hell with a smile. We never thought we'd actually have to, but once the power went out, everything changed. Collab with breath1926.


**Straight Through Hell  
><strong>Written by  
>Hallow Bird and breathe1926<p>

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><p><strong>Opening Author's Notes: <strong>This collaboration is the result of marathoning Revolution till 5 am and a discussion between friends usually starting with the statement '_what if.' _After discovering this show together and the lack of OC stories in its fanfiction archive, we decided to create one of our own. Even though this story will include OCs, it will explore more of the canon characters and plots. The past will be added to and despite the show's cancellation, our ideas equal out to a five season show, at least. This story is the first of many in a series we like to call _The Contrasting Chronicles._

**Story Details:  
><strong>Title: Straight Through Hell  
><span>Rating:<span> T for language, violence, and suggestive content  
><span>Disclaimer:<span> Revolution and all of the characters therein do not belong to us. Any original characters or content does.  
><span>SpoilersWarnings: Spoilers for both seasons. Slight AU. OCs. OC pairings.  
><span>Pairings:<span> Monroe/OC, Miles/OC

Readers, we hope you enjoy the story that follows. Please read and review; we would love to hear from you. And now onto the story...

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><p><strong>Prologue<br>Consign to Darkness **

_Life isn't just about darkness or light, it's about finding light within darkness.  
><em>–Landon Parham

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><p><strong>.V.<strong>

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><p>Do you ever wonder where you would be the day the world ended? I always imagined I be doing some heroic shit. Like saving a puppy, or fighting a giant robot or something. My best friend disagreed.<p>

"You'll probably be in the middle of the chaos with some stranger and a bottle of vodka," she told me when I asked.

I laughed and returned her jab.

"Well, you'd probably be sitting in a damn Starbucks reading some shitty romance novel or making out with that thing you call your fiancé. It's like a pet, right? Do you ever have to feed it?"

She laughed and told me to take another sip of wine.

So a few months later, I'd like to say that I was out slaying the dragon of bureaucracy and standing against the intrepid societal bias and injustice known as "THE MAN." I would love to prove that even the lowest of the low can rise above the poor choices and poverty that comes with being less than the 1% of America's rich upper class…but I can't.

The day the world ended I was sitting in a bar texting my best friend, drinking a Bloody Mary.

From a radio, music blared loud and annoying, hammering my already buzzed brain. After a few sips, I felt a bit drunk. I was looking around for the next guy I would take home, and feeling kind of unlucky at the moment, when my phone buzzed. A text from one Rose Dawson…aka Sam Carter.

She was gushing about her fiancée again. I still hadn't met the bastard that was trying to marry my sister. I decided to remind her of that fact:

**_I still need to have a talk with your fiancé. I need to tell him about the future he won't have if he breaks your heart. It should be a nice conversation between me, him, and my knife._**

I could almost hear her laugh through the phone when her reply came.

_You can't threaten a man you haven't met. And you will not hurt him! Or scare him off. I really love the guy. He's amazing. He's perfect...and he has a friend. A really cute friend_**_._**

Samantha Carter, romance extraordinaire…

**_You're already engaged._**

And then there's me….

_I know that! I mean for you. So you can stop picking up guys in bars and leaving them in the morning. Having a steady relationship is really nice._

As I read that I looked up from my phone to see a college aged guy staring at me from across the bar. He had deep-set green eyes, and blonde hair, and was very obviously checking me out…Right on time.

He seemed cute enough, and definitely interested. What the hell, I might as well enjoy myself, so I did what I do best, played hard to get. I winked an eye and flipped my brown hair and ducked back down to my phone…

**_What's wrong with my current approach to men, Dawson? It seems to work for them._**

I looked back up from the phone and was met with the green eyes of the guy who'd moved to sit in the bat stool next to me, and a glass of whiskey in front of me.

"Have a drink," he said.

"Why do you think I'm here dumbass," I told him, taking a long sip of the whiskey.

"Mind if this dumbass joins you then," said the guy.

Sexy and direct, my lips turned into a sly smile. This one I may bring home.

"Well does the dumbass have a name, or can I call you dumbass all night," I said, another sip of the drink following the snide remark.

He poured himself a shot of whatever the hell it was he was drinking, and took it quick and fast like a man. His eyes stared to haze over, the alcohol beginning to take effect…

"The dumbass's name is Mason, and what about you, pretty lady? You gotta name," said the dumbass, _Mason_ apparently.

"You can call me V, and you had a few buddy," I asked him, the last thing I wanted tonight was a drunk off his ass moron trying to shit talk his way into a ride home (yes it had happened).

Then right on cue, my phone buzzes…

_Because it's a lonely existence and you never get attached. That is the point of dating - to find love and find the person you want to spend the rest of your life with._

My eyes rolled over in my head. She knew me well enough to know her romancey, lovey dovey shit wouldn't do jack on me. I didn't do "steady" or "lifetime commitment"

Although I couldn't deny she may be right. That maybe a constant lover would pull my mind away from Afghanistan, and away from…it may help. But I'd never say that….

**_Which sappy romance crap novel did you steal that line from?_**

I looked up from my phone; to see that the dumbass had passed out next to me, go figure…I began to wonder what would happen if I did have a "steady, affirming relationship" as Sam put it.

I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tempting to forget about all of it and a guy maybe the way to forget about it.

I took a long drag of my whiskey, the burn down my throat, making me crave more.

Men and whiskey were one in the same to me.

One sip, one touch, it led to a desire for more.

That desire, that burn, it led to a glass, a kiss.

That glass, it led to a bottle, that kiss to something even more.

I sighed, and picked up the phone…

**_Maybe I could go on –_**

My phone screen went blank. The bar went pitch black. The music died into deafening silence.

_Well, shit, _I thought, _I guess I'm meant to be a lonely cat lady after all._

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><p><strong>.Sam.<strong>

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><p>Do you ever wonder where you would be the day the world ended?<p>

Unlike my best friend, I didn't like to answer those types of questions. You know the ones like 'if the zombie apocalypse happened, where would you go?' or 'if World War III broke out, what would you do?'

I didn't like to think about all the bad, bad things that _could _happen in the future. I didn't understand why you would want to think about wars and catastrophes. I didn't understand why you would allow your mind to be consumed with the darkness those thoughts of 'what if' spawned. There was too much happening in the present to allow yourself to become so focused on the fragile circumstance of _the future._

But, I will admit, I do think about the future, usually just my personal future of the upcoming things. Things that don't depress me. Things like my hopes and dreams that have been a while in the making. Like my progress in medical school, my upcoming wedding, the man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with, the kind of house we will buy, the looks and names of the many kids I hope to have, the places we can visit. See happy and hopeful things like that, not sad and depressing things like death and destruction of everything.

Although, V Knight likes those kinds of questions. I can't explain to you why. I can't explain her and I will marvel at any person that could possibly unravel some of the enigma that is my best friend.

When the question _do you ever wonder where you would be the day the world ended? _popped up randomly during dinner in our shared apartment one night, V insisted I answer. To avoid those bad depressing thoughts, I made the conversation humorous by answering where I thought _V _would be when the world ended.

With a cheeky smile, I had answered, "You'll probably be in the middle of the chaos with some stranger and a bottle of vodka." The image came clear to mind–the brown-haired woman standing on top of an abandoned car while fires burned around, cackling at the dark sky when not taking a swig from the bottle in her hand. If the world did end, I knew my friend would find some way to thrive. Hell, she would probably rule the anarchy as Queen of the World.

When I told her of my theory, she had a good laugh. Taking a sip of wine she'd procured (whether by legal or not so legal means, I didn't ask and she didn't tell) as part of an apology for destroying the television in her rage at the Sherlock Season 2 cliffhanger, she replied with her vision of me during the end of the world. "Well, you'd probably be sitting in a damn Starbucks reading some shitty romance novel or making out with that thing you call your fiancé. It's like a pet, right? Do you ever have to feed it?"

I shook my head as I laughed, amused greatly by her genuine confusion of a _fiancé_. After a few months of my engagement, she still couldn't wrap her head around the idea of marrying and committing to _one _person the rest of your life. I couldn't blame her, knowing better than anyone that she was more of a _lone wolf_ who liked to have a man around for one night and one night only instead of the 'long term romancey crap' V calls it.

Though that doesn't keep me from trying to set her up on a few dates. Even with each defeat, I still try to see if I can bring her some happiness like she did me. It was because she had dragged me away from my novels to that bar the night after her enlistment that I had met my future husband.

The night the world had ended, I sat on a bed in some motel room, texting my best friend and my fiancé.

The room was clean and decent for the money I had paid to stay for one night. I made a little cocoon of blankets and pillows on the bed to lounge on while my Macbook sat on the comforted before me. It was an alright bed, nothing near as comfortable as the one in my shared apartment. But the fact that I was not too far away from where my fiancé was stationed currently was more important to me.

Steady noise of action and dialogue from the _Batman Begins _movie playing on the television filled the lamp-lit room along with the occasional bing from my phone. My eyes were focused on the computer screen. Expertly with a skill acquired through years of college, I scrolled through my Pinterest dash, on the search for more last-minute wedding ideas, with one hand while eating chocolate-chip cookie dough ice cream with the other.

My iPhone buzzed with a text. The screen reported it came from _Catwoman_, aka my friend V. For years we had an on-running joke, I'd call her _Catwoman _because she was quite similar to the suave, sexy criminal and she'd call me _Rose Dawson _since I had been the one to force her to watch what has now become her favorite movie, _Titanic_. (After she fell in love with the 'sappy romance' movie she'd sworn to hate until she actually watched it because of my persuasive skills with duct tape, she told me she would actually kill me if I informed anyone of her new favorite.)

Swiping my thumb the across the screen, I opened up the message. **_I still need to have a talk with your fiancé. I need to tell him about the future he won't have if he breaks your heart. It should be a nice conversation between me, him, and my knife._**

A laugh bubbled past my lips at the blunt statement…but then I started to think how V rarely did not follow-up on her threats...the image of my protective best friend meeting my fiancé filled my mind with a million worst case scenarios of spilled blood and tensed my body with nervousness.

Dear God...V and him meeting had the potential for either a blessing or a disaster. There was a possibility that the meeting could turn out well. They could maybe get along, considering their charismatic personalities, similar sense of humor, and the fact they both had served in the military. But V's mostly extreme protectiveness over me and my fiancé's deep attachment, board-line possessiveness, towards me, might cause the end of the world.

Well, the end of _my_ world at least.

But, one could never know. I tried to reassure myself that everything would be alright with calming thoughts and another spoonful of ice cream. They haven't even met, I reminded myself. Calm down. Everything will be fine. Just lay down a few ground rules so V doesn't kill him, I thought.

I quickly typed and sent back my response.

_You can't threaten a man you haven't met. And you will not hurt him! Or scare him off. I really love the guy. He's amazing. He's perfect...and he has a friend. A really cute friend._

I smiled to myself as I sent the text. Hopefully, V would try to go on this blind date. This time I thought it might work out well. The man was a childhood friend of my fiancé's. _Practically my brother, _he had once said. After meeting him, I knew my fiancé's praise and love for him was well-earned and I started a friendship of my own with him. He was a great guy. Loyal, understanding, respectful of space, good sense of humor, quiet. I personally thought he would be perfect for V...if she would just go out on one date with him.

**_You're already engaged._**

V's text reminded me, as if I haven't been planning a wedding for months.

Rolling my brown eyes, I sent back, _I know that! I mean for you. So you can stop picking up guys in bars and leaving them in the morning. Having a steady relationship is really nice._

Another response came quickly.

**_What's wrong with my current approach to men, Dawson? It seems to work for them._**

I nearly threw my phone across the room in exasperation. My mind immediately filled with reasons why the whole 'no attachments' life style was not the best, and most of those reason were quotes directly from countless movies and novels, a few of them being the 'trashy romance' books that were my guilty pleasure. My mind went through the familiar rant as if it was speaking directly to my lonely best friend with an alcohol addiction while I consumed some more ice cream.

The phone buzzed once more. This time the screen read: _New Message from Batman. _As a soft smile twitched my lips, my eyes settled on my left hand. The simple gold band and single diamond shined beautifully in the soft light.

_Hey, angel. Are you at the hotel yet?_

The smile only grew, seeing that he was checking up on me and making sure I didn't get lost, which was an easy feat for me considering I had no sense of direction. I've gotten lost in Wal-Mart on more than one occasion to both my friend's and fiancé's amusement. I quickly replied to ease any worry he might feel.

_I've already checked in, made my blanket cocoon, and acquired access to the WiFi and Pinterest. Batman Begins is playing on cable and I have ice cream. So I'm perfect for the night. How about you? Are you still at the base or did you go out?_

His response came immediately. _Good. Glad to hear you didn't get lost in the middle of nowhere. Sounds like you got a pretty good set up in that room. Brother treated me to a night out for some drinks. We had a good time, though I wish you were here._

I have found the perfect man, I thought once more with the brightest smile. _Well, I'll be there tomorrow morning. So we don't have to wait too much longer to see each other, because God, I've missed you. And tell your brother I will hit him if you're too hungover to get the marriage license tomorrow._

A familiar rush of emotion filled me, clutching my heart with a wonderful tightness as my thoughts were once more consumed with thoughts of him. His intelligence. His humor. His strength. His perseverance. His loyalty. His devotion. His charming smile. His eyes. His amazing hair. Just _him. _

Everything about him was wonderful to me, even the flaws and even the scars, both physical and mental from his tours of service. Despite the little imperfections, despite the nights I wake up to his nightmares, I love him.

I just love him so much.

Being filled with that love gave me my answer to V's question about what was not really wrong...but unsatisfying in a life without anyone else. _Because it's a lonely existence and you never get attached. That is the point of dating - to find love and find the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. _I sent to V.

I smiled, proud with the answer. Hopefully the message would get through her thick skull and open her up to at least take a chance on finding someone.

Her response came rather quickly.

**_Which sappy romance crap novel did you steal that line from?_**

Exhaling in frustration, I nearly chucked the phone with the damn message from my stubborn friend. The only thing that stopped me was a another alert. _Batman _had replied.

_I've missed you too, angel. I can't wait till morning. And I told him. He was shaking in his boots. He promised I will be sober enough for tomorrow. It's not that difficult to get a piece of paper._

Perfect timing, I thought as a few words from him brought a smile easily from me. _He better be scared. And it's an important piece of paper. It's the paper that will allow us to get married._

Another alert, another text from him.

_Then it's the most important piece of paper in the world if it allows you to become my wife. _

As I read the message, my teeth chewed on my lips to prevent my grin from spreading any larger. Heat flooded my face, and without looking in a mirror I knew my pale skin had turned pink. Damn him. Even miles and miles away he could bring out a blush in me with a simple sentence and a memory of his smile.

_Stop that. You're making me blush._

_But, angel, you're adorable when you turn red._

I just knew where ever he was at that moment, he was smirking that damn smirk, the one that without fail makes my knees grow weak.

_Shut up...I love you. _I replied.

Leaning back against the mountain of pillows, I raised my left hand, bringing it to eye level. For a moment, I just marveled at the ring on my finger, at the significance of it, at the soldier who'd mailed it to me from across the world with a simple note, at the imagination that soon a another band of gold would join it on my ring finger.

Then the lights started to flicker.

I looked away from the ring and around the room, watching with furrowed brows as the lights began to flicker, the screens of the television and laptop began to blur with static and waves. Even the lights outside of the room's window started to flutter.

Electricity crackled loudly and strangely.

Confusion and panic jolted through my body.

Immediately, I grabbed my phone, trembling fingers flying across the touch screen to the call option.

I had to call him, I had to call V.

I had to make sure everything was okay.

Everything _had_ to be okay.

Then, the phone's screen started acting up, blurring and blinking. My eyes widened and my fingers moved faster, almost violently tapping the screen.

There was a large surge, and with a cry from my lips, the world was consumed in darkness.


End file.
